Transient photoinduced 'hidden' phase in a manganite

Photoinduced phase transitions are of special interest in condensed matter physics because they can be used to change complex macroscopic material properties on the ultrafast timescale. Cooperative interactions between microscopic degrees of freedom greatly enhance the number and nature of accessible states, making it possible to switch electronic, magnetic or structural properties in new ways. Photons with high energies, of the order of electron volts, in particular are able to access electronic states that may differ greatly from states produced with stimuli close to equilibrium. In this study we report the photoinduced change in the lattice structure of a charge and orbitally ordered Nd(0.5)Sr(0.5)MnO(3) thin film using picosecond time-resolved X-ray diffraction. The photoinduced state is structurally ordered, homogeneous, metastable and has crystallographic parameters different from any thermodynamically accessible state. A femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopic study shows the formation of an electronic gap in this state. In addition, the threshold-like behaviour and high efficiency in photo-generation yield of this gapped state highlight the important role of cooperative interactions in the formation process. These combined observations point towards a 'hidden insulating phase' distinct from that found in the hitherto known phase diagram.     

Phase-interpolated averaging for analyzing electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography epochs

Stimulus-locked averages of electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) epochs reveal characteristic waveforms. EEG/MEG generation models to have reconstruct such waveforms have been recently proposed. These models assume that evoked, phase-modulated, and amplitude-modulated activities occur solely or simultaneously. We propose a two-stage stimulus-locked averaging method, called phase-interpolated averaging, to investigate the EEG/MEG generation process. First, virtual EEG/MEG epochs, which would be obtained as if instantaneous phases for each time sampling point were on a phase-grid, are interpolated from actually measured EEG/MEG epochs. Then, the virtual EEG/MEG epochs are discrete Fourier transformed. A simulation revealed that the zeroth Fourier term revealed the evoked activity, the first Fourier term revealed the amplitude-modulated activity, and the condition number of the interpolation reflected the phase-modulated activity. On the basis of these facts, a preliminary EEG analysis implied that the evoked activity is much smaller than what would be expected by using conventional averaging, the evoked and phase-modulated activities simultaneously occur, and the amplitude-modulated activity occasionally associates with the evoked and phase-modulated activities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that these three activities have been shown to coexist by actually separating them.     

Microbial analyses by fluorescence in situ hybridization of well-settled granular sludge in brewery wastewater treatment plants

The characteristics of granular sludge from full-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors used for the treatment of brewery wastewater were investigated. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses of settled granules from a reactor that had been treating brewery wastewater stably at COD removal rates of over 90% for more than 6 months showed that a methanogen of the genus Methanosaeta was predominant near the granule surface and that Bacteria were not abundant. The center of the granules was composed of dead or resting cells, or both, which were used as a support for active archaeal and bacterial cells near the surface. Periodic analysis of granules from full-scale plants showed that granules containing methanogens deep within them tended to float. Granules with a Bacteria layer on the surface also tended to float. On the basis of these findings, well-settled granules are considered to have methanogens that develop near the granule surface so that the gases generated during methane fermentation are readily released.     

Noninvasive sensing of thermal treatments of Japanese seafood products using imaging spectroscopy

The potential of imaging spectroscopy for noncontact sensing of thermal treatments experienced on Japanese kamaboko was investigated. Samples were thermally treated at 100, 120, 140, 160, 180 and 200 °C to core temperatures of 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75 and 80 °C and then promptly cooled and imaged in the short‐wave near infrared spectral range of 900–2500 nm. Partial least square (PLS) regression models were developed using the whole spectral range as well as using the most important wavelengths to predict the core temperature (T_C) and thermal history (TH) yielding a reasonable level of accuracy of ( = 0.86 and RMSEP = 3.9 °C) and ( = 0.83 and RMSEP = 0.29 min), respectively. Moreover, a stepwise linear discriminant analysis (LDA) model was developed for identifying samples whose core temperatures reached a threshold of 65 °C. The LDA model yielded overall classification accuracy of 93.75% in both calibration and validation sets. The resulting discrimination function was then applied in a pixel‐wise manner to produce understandable classification maps to exhibit the difference among samples with high accuracy.     

结合烷烃硫醇小分子自组装单层的原子光刻技术——以壬烷硫醇和12烷硫醇为例

采用不同网格尺寸的透射电镜铜网作为掩模,以烷烃硫醇类小分子自组装单层作为光刻胶,光学质量的云母为衬底,用亚稳氦原子光刻技术制备具有纳米台阶的金膜图形,最终用原子力显微镜分析表征.结果表明:这种技术可将具有钠米台阶的正负图形很好地传递到金膜,具有高的可信度.同时,在不同时的实验中光刻图形的重复性很好.     

Making 2D Map of Environments Based upon Routes Scenes

This paper proposes a method for making a map of large scale environment based upon route scenes, assuming that the topological relation of routes at intersections is known. A panoramic representation is used for describing route scenes, and the number of routes connecting at an intersection is assumed to be known. The idea is to decompose a 2D graph into a number of closed loops. By detecting the closed loops and storing the relation among them, we can describe the 2D map based upon route scenes. A robot can obtain a closed loop by taking the same turn (leftmost for example) at every intersection when it moves along routes. According to the information on routes at intersections, the robot can select unmoved routes for finding new closed loops. By fusing new closed loops with found ones, the robot can, further, build the map of environments. The effectiveness of our method are shown by experiment in a real-world environment.     

Development for 4th generation mobile communications

The great success of the i‐mode service shows that data communication services are becoming accepted in the mobile communication world. Multimedia mobile communication services will be provided by 3rd generation IMT‐2000 systems next year in Japan. Thus, the time has come to begin the research and development for 4th generation (4G) mobile communication systems. There exist many difficult issues for 4G systems, such as frequency resources, additional investment, higher speed wireless transmission technology and so on. Furthermore, a new concept must be discussed for 4G before solving these issues. This paper briefly presents current conditions of cellular systems and the development of IMT‐2000 in Japan. The concept and problems of the 4G system are then described along with new technologies that will be useful in solving technical problems. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A RaPID Macrocyclic Peptide That Inhibits the Formation of α-Synuclein Amyloid Fibrils

There is considerable interest in drug discovery targeting the aggregation of α-synuclein (αSyn) since this molecular process is closely associated with Parkinson's disease. However, inhibiting αSyn aggregation remains a major challenge because of its highly dynamic nature which makes it difficult to form a stable binding complex with a drug molecule. Here, by exploiting Random non-standard Peptides Integrated Discovery (RaPID) system, we identified a macrocyclic peptide, BD1, that could interact with immobilized αSyn and inhibit the formation of fibrils. Furthermore, improving the solubility of BD1 suppresses the co-aggregation with αSyn fibrils while it kinetically inhibits more effectively without change in their morphology. We also revealed the molecular mechanism of kinetic inhibition, where peptides bind to fibril ends of αSyn, thereby preventing further growth of fibrils. These results suggest that our approach for generating non-standard macrocyclic peptides is a promising approach for developing potential therapeutics against neurodegeneration.     

Rational Ligand Design of Heteroleptic Iridium (III) Complexes toward Nearly Perfect Horizontal Dipole Orientation for Highly Efficient Red-Emitting Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

The horizontal orientation of the transition dipole moment of the phosphorescent emitters is understood to be an important factor to enhance the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of organic light-emitting diodes by improving light out-coupling in optical microcavity structures. Here, red-emitting heteroleptic iridium (III) complexes exhibiting an extremely high horizontal ratio of emitting dipole orientation (EDO) and photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), as well as longer device operational lifetime, without scarifying any other photophysical properties are reported. The systematic molecular design of main and ancillary ligands in heteroleptic iridium complexes leads to the achievement of both a horizontal EDO of 92% and a PLQY of 98% in the red-emitting phosphorescent devices along with a shorter exciton decay time of 0.71 µs. Accordingly, the red-emitting devices show excellent performances of maximum EQE of 32% and low-efficiency roll-off with the 1931 Commission Internationale de L′Eclariage coordinates of (0.66, 0.34). Therefore, this approach opens the way for further development of new red-emitting iridium complexes pushing the device efficiency toward the theoretical limits.     

Biosynthetic Gene Cluster of Linaridin Peptides Contains Epimerase Gene

Salinipeptins belong to the type-A linaridin class of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) comprising 22 amino acid residues with multiple D -amino acids. Although chirality of other type-A linaridins, such as grisemycin and cypemycin, has not been reported, the biosynthetic gene clusters of type-A linaridins have identical gene organization. Here, we report heterologous expression of grisemycin biosynthetic gene cluster (grm) and show that grisemycin contains multiple D -amino acids, similar to salinipeptins. The heterologous expression experiments also confirm the involvement of a novel peptide epimerase in grisemycin biosynthesis. Gene-deletion experiments indicate that grmL, a single gene with unknown function, is indispensable for grisemycin production. We also show that the presence of D -amino acids is likely a common feature of linaridin natural products by analyzing two other type-A linaridin clusters.